Home News Paying More for Less? A New Classification System to Prioritize Outcomes in Higher Education – Third Way

Paying More for Less? A New Classification System to Prioritize Outcomes in Higher Education – Third Way

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This policy brief is based on research supported by Arnold Ventures. The views expressed in this report are solely those of its authors and do not necessarily represent the views of our funders.

Colleges and universities in the United States have faced considerable financial challenges since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the extent of this economic turmoil cannot yet be fully determined, policymakers can look to what happened in the higher education sector following the Great Recession for important lessons when responding to the current economic downturn. To this end, we examine enrollment patterns, labor market outcomes, and default rates among college students following the Great Recession to offer a national picture of who is typically helped and harmed following a major economic shock. Our analysis provides grounding for a new classification system for measuring college students’ ROI and seeks to inform targeted policies designed to protect students with the greatest need for support in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new classification system considers both relative net prices and repayment outcomes to identify (1) low-price, high-quality institutions, (2) low-price, low-quality institutions, (3) high-price, high-quality institutions, and (4) high-price, low-quality institutions.

Enrollment Trends Following the Great Recession
In response to the Great Recession, total enrollment at all types of colleges and universities increased from 18.3 million students in Fall 2007 to roughly 21 million students in Fall 2010, as a tight labor market led more students to enter or return to postsecondary education.1

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